Laskiaispulla – Shrove Tuesday bun

Once again I felt pressure to make a seasonal Finnish classic which I have never baked before. I loved them as a child and now the craving got too strong and drove me into the kitchen. In the end they turned out to be quite simple to make. All you need is some patience with the rising of the dough. 

Laskiaispullat are sweet buns filled with jam and whipped cream or almond paste, which are traditionally eaten on Shrove Tuesday (or mid-winter sliding festival as Wikipedia puts it) before starting Lent.

The recipes vary regionally within Finland and the Scandinavian countries have their own variations as well.  In Finland it's a tradition to go sledding or to slide down snowy hills on Shrove Tuesday and especially after those activities these buns taste extraordinarily good.

The buns are regular Finnish Pulla [ˈpulːɑ] - a mildly sweet roll or bun often flavoured with crushed cardamom seeds.

Ingredients to make about 12 buns

For the buns:

50 g Butter

2 ½ dl Milk

1 Egg

7 dl Wheatflour

½ dl Sugar

½ tsp Salt

1 Bag of dry yeast

1 tsp Ground green cardamom seeds

2 tbsp Icing sugar

For the filling:

1 dl Strawberry jam

2 dl Whip cream

3 tbsp Sugar

Gently melt the butter in a saucepan and warm the milk slightly above room temperature. Mix the dry yeast with about a quarter of the flour.

Mix the sugar, salt and cardamom in a bowl and add the milk. Then add the part of flour that was mixed with the yeast into the bowl. Follow this by adding the melted butter and then the rest of the flour gradually while mixing until the dough is nice and smooth. 

Let the dough rise under a teatowel for about 45 minutes until it doubles its size.

Shape small buns out of the dough. Sometimes laskiaispulla are made massive but I prefer them a little smaller. Place them on a baking tray and let them rise again for about 10 minutes. In the meanwhile pre-heat the oven to around 220C. Brush each bun with the beaten egg before baking. Bake them for about 10 minutes until they are golden brown.

Remove the buns from the oven and let them cool down. While they are cooling down you can whip the cream. Add the sugar to the cream and whip with a hand mixer until it's a firm foam.

Cut the buns in half slightly above the middle in order to form a lid. Spread strawberry jam on each side (lid and base), spread whipped cream on the base in approximate thickness of 1 cm.

Place the lid on the base and in the end sprinkle some icing sugar on the buns.

Ready to be served - Divine with coffee or hot chocolate!

Your VegHog

Seedy spelt flatbreads

I used spelt for the first time ever for baking and made these flatbreads with various seeds. Spelt is an ancient grain already used in the Bronze Age and is again becoming more popular as a healthy food.

I altered a recipe for normal seedy rolls a little bit and reached a great result. These were very easy to make and although they do look a bit rustic they taste really lovely.

Ingredients for about 12 flatbreads

2 ½ dl Milk

11 g Dry yeast

2 tsp Sugar

¾ tsp Salt

2 tbsp Sesame seeds

2 tbsp Sunflower seeds

2 tbsp Flaxseed

1 dl Oat flakes

4 dl Spelt flour

2 tbsp Olive oil

Water and poppy seeds for the top

Dissolve the yeast into milk at room temperature. Add the salt, seeds and most of the spelt flour.

Add the oil and mix into an even dough. Add the rest of the flour. Cover the dough and let it rise in a warm room. When it has doubled its size divide it into 12 parts and form flatbreads out of it. Let them rise again for a while under a teatowel.

Brush them with water and sprinkle poppy or sesame seeds or both on the top.

Bake at 225C for 10-15 minutes.

Eat them just with butter, as burgers, you name it! When freshly baked they taste the best.

Serving suggestion:

Eat with The VegHog's special courgette Schnitzel, cheese, tomato and mushroom.

Stay hungry!

Your VegHog

Wyld Wood organic cider

The VegHog likes hogging not just vegetables but also cider. Cider is a brilliant and refreshing drink and there are many variations to suit everyone's taste. English ciders are very different to the Finnish ones as they are much richer and less sweet. I'll try to make recommendations here for nice ciders that I have tasted.

Today I'm drinking Westons Wyld Wood vintage organic still cider from the convenient three litre box which should keep me going for a while. Wyld Wood is an organic cider suitable for vegans, vegetarians and coeliacs. There are both apple and pear flavoured Wyld Woods available.

I'm not very good at describing flavours in drinks but I shall try as I'm tasting it while writing this. For certain I can say that it tastes of apples. It's very fruity and rich in its flavour. It tastes slightly smoky and nutty and has a vanilla note in the aftertaste. I like it because it's not too dry.

With 7,3 % alcohol it's quite a strong cider so drink responsibly.

Your VegHog

The VegHog's special courgette Schnitzel

Zdeněk Miler's Mole with his hedgehog friend

And so the Schnitzel saga continues with another of my own creations and a permanent favourite: the VegHog's legendary courgette Schnitzel. 

As you may know The VegHog is veggie burger crazy and it regularly keeps making some veggie Schnitzel. (See my Aubergine Schnitzel recipe here.)

Sometimes vegetarian burgers can be complicated to make and have many different preparation phases but these are extremely easy to make – no breading needed! I much prefer this style to the breaded versions because these aren't messy at all and they also are fairly light.

Ingredients

2 Courgettes

1 Onion

2 Cloves of garlic

1 Chili pepper

2 Eggs

Grated cheese

Wheatflour

Salt & pepper

Olive oil

Method

Grate the courgettes and cheese with a cheese grater. Finely chop the onions, garlic and chili. Mix these ingredients in a bowl and season them with salt and pepper. Add the eggs to the mix and while stirring add flour until you have a paste that holds firmly together.

Heat a good layer of olive oil in a frying pan (about enough to reach halfway up the Schnitzel). Add the mix to the pan with a tablespoon and form thin Schnitzel out of it in the pan. About half a centimeter is a good thickness.

Fry until the Schnitzel are brown in places, but not burned or too dry, and then turn them over. When the Schnitzel are fried, place them on a sheet of kitchen roll that will remove the excess oil.

You can eat them in many possible variations: as burgers, with potato mash, between potato rösti, you tell me!

Stay hungry!

Your VegHog

Creamy funnel chanterelle and smoky cheese sauce with fiorelli

The VegHog is too fond of pasta and needs to share this creation with you even though there already have been quite a few pasta related stories.

For this pasta dish I'm using very special funnel chanterelles. Some time ago The VegHog received a large bag of dried funnel chanterelles from its father, who had collected them in the Finnish forests. That slightly suspicious packet miraculously made its way from Finland to England. This batch will keep The VegHog going for a long time this winter.

Please remember not to collect mushrooms in nature unless you know them very well! You can easily get different varieties of mushrooms in shops and markets.

Funnel chanterelles are excellent mushrooms for cooking because of their fine taste. They taste so intense that normally you don't have to use many of them to make a flavoursome dish.

Ingredients

A cup of dried funnel chanterelles

Fiorelli pasta

1 Onion

1-2 Cloves of garlic

Cream

Smoky cheese

Vegetable stock

White wine

Olive oil

Basil

Salt

Pepper

Make it so!

Soak the mushrooms in water for about 30 minutes. While the mushrooms are soaking, chop the onion, garlic and fresh basil and grate the cheese. I used Finnish creamy smoky cheese that I happened to have at home but also smoked cheddar should work nicely in this sauce. The funnel chanterelles are slightly smoky as well, so they make a good and strong combination.

Start frying the onions and garlic. Remove the soaking water from the mushrooms but save it and add it to the vegetable stock.

Chop the mushrooms small with a hand mixer and add them to the pan. When everything has been fried for some time, pour a little bit of white wine in. And when the wine has evaporated, add the vegetable stock to the pan and let the sauce reduce. Then add the cream and let it reduce again. You can also make a cream-free version. Finally add the grated smoky cheese into the sauce and stir.

Cook the pasta in salt water. Season the sauce with basil, salt and pepper. Mix the pasta with the sauce before serving and garnish the dish with smoky cheese and fresh basil.

Creamy version 

Creamless version

Creamy version with different pasta

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Runeberg's torte

Finnish: Runebergintorttu, Swedish: Runebergstårta

Today The VegHog is baking, which is quite a rare occasion but now there's a reason for it! It's making a seasonal cake: Runeberg's torte. Runeberg's torte is a Finnish cake named after the national poet of Finland Johan Ludvig Runeberg (1804-1877). According to legend his wife Fredrika Runeberg created this torte out of limited stock in her kitchen and from then on J. L. ate it every day for breakfast.

Every year around the time of Runeberg's birthday, 5th February, many Finns bake or buy these cakes in order to enjoy them with loads of coffee. As this day is soon upon us The VegHog bakes these cakes with its own variated non-alcoholic recipe. I made them for the first time ever a year ago and my goal is to improve my version now. Maybe it can get better each year as these are surprisingly easy and fun to make. By googling you can find the traditional recipe even in English if you prefer.

Ingredients to make 10 cakes

For the dough:

100 g Margarine

1 dl Sugar

1 Egg

1 dl Wheatflour

1 dl Breadcrumbs

½ dl Ground almonds

1 tsp Baking powder

For the topping:

Raspberry jam

For the icing:

1 tbsp Lemon juice

2-3 dl Icing sugar

And this is how it's done

Whisk the margarine and the sugar into a foamlike texture. Add the egg while whisking further.

Mix the dry ingredients for the dough with each other. Add them to the margarine, sugar and egg mixture and stir it all into an even paste.

I'm using my silicone baking tray for these but you can also put the dough into muffin cases. Divide the dough into the cases and fill them approximately halfway.

Bake in the oven at about 200C for 10-15 minutes. Let them cool down after baking.

Almost done now...

While the cakes are cooling down make the icing by mixing the icing sugar and lemon juice into a firm paste. 

Place the raspberry jam on the top in the middle of the cakes. You can even press it a little bit deeper into the cake. Squirt the icing mixture with an icing gun onto the cakes in a thin circle around the jam. 

And you're done, they're best served with good fairtrade coffee.

They should be slightly higher. Check out the pictures online what they're supposed to look like.

I would be excited to hear any non-Finns' opinions about these cakes in case somebody tries making them.

Happy Runeberg's day on Tuesday and stay hungry!

Your VegHog

Potato skins with Brussels sprouts

Hello Hoggers!

Today I'm making potato skins. They take long time to make but the ingredient palette is very simple and there is not much preparation needed. Most of the time you'll have to be patient and wait for the potatoes to come out of the oven.

I rarely use cabbages but Brussels sprouts are a frequent visitor in my kitchen. They are tasty and healthy and give the twist to this dish. You could also use leeks instead but that's too boring for me today. I also believe that Brussels sprouts generally aren't a big hit among kids but I imagine that they would like this dish.

This is what you'll need:

4 Large potatoes

10 Brussels sprouts

Red Leicester cheese

Olive oil

Sea salt

Pepper

Method:

Wash the potatoes and violently stab them with a fork several times.

Prepare a bowl where you mix olive oil with sea salt. Roll the potatoes in that mix and place them on a baking tray. Remove any excess oil from the baking tray. The saltiness of the potato crust will blow your mind when you taste these later.

Cook slowly in the oven for about one hour at 180C. Turn the potatoes midway through the cooking for more even browning.

In the meanwhile you can quarter the Brussels sprouts and steam them. Then grate some cheese; I also recommend you to try this recipe with some smoky cheese.

When the potatoes are soft and have a brown crust, take them out and cut them half. Spoon the insides out and mix them with the sprouts and grated cheese in a warm pan. Season with pepper.

Fill the skins with the mix and enjoy!

Have a hogtastic weekend all!

The VegHog